Call Me Awesome
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Quote:Oh I knew what you meant there, I just didn't want anyone to misinterpret what you said. It's really easy for someone to read your post and jump to the conclusion that LR's tohit was 75% at all times.Originally Posted by Smersh
True.
But, since the OP was talking about no inspirations, no support... -
Quote:*While the Blue tower's up*Originally Posted by Smersh
Super Recluse does not have a normal to-hit; you need 75% defense instead of the usual 45% to softcap against him.
Once the Blue tower dies his tohit drops to normal for a 54 AV and 45% def soft caps against him. -
I've been having a lot of fun lately with my Fire/EM blaster... the character's been quite durable and playable but I'm looking at tweaking it a bit. Currently I'm sitting at around 30% ranged defense; I've come up with a build that pushes that to ~36% without serious compromise. This comes at the expense of 7.5% recharge and a few other minor losses.
Anyway, if you guys see anything that could use improvement let me know... after all this 'ain't a tanker
The big changes from my live build are swapping Kin Crash for Mako in Power Thrust and 6 slotting Gaussian's into Build Up... everything else is nearly identical to my live build. Yes, I do have City Traveler and am taking advantage of it in this build.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Delta Farce: Level 50 Natural Blaster
Primary Power Set: Fire Blast
Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Electrical Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 1: Power Thrust -- Mako-Dam%(A), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Mako-Acc/Dmg(9), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(36), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 2: Fire Ball -- Posi-Dmg/Rchg(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg(13), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), Posi-Dmg/Rng(15), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(15)
Level 4: Flares -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(19), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21)
Level 6: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(9), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(11), GSFC-Build%(23), GSFC-ToHit(23), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(42)
Level 8: Rain of Fire -- Posi-Dmg/Rchg(A), RechRdx-I(11), Posi-Acc/Dmg(25), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Posi-Dmg/Rng(27), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27)
Level 10: Bone Smasher -- Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(31), Mako-Acc/Dmg(31), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Mako-Dam%(33)
Level 12: Fly -- Frbd-Stlth(A)
Level 14: Fire Breath -- Posi-Dmg/Rchg(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), Posi-Acc/Dmg(33), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rng(34), Range-I(39)
Level 16: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Blaze -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(36), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39)
Level 20: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A)
Level 24: Aid Other -- Heal-I(A)
Level 26: Aid Self -- H'zdH-Heal/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(29), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(34)
Level 28: Super Speed -- Zephyr-ResKB(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(43)
Level 30: Blazing Bolt -- Range-I(A)
Level 32: Inferno -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(40), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(40), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(42)
Level 35: Boost Range -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 38: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(39)
Level 41: Shocking Bolt -- Lock-%Hold(A), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(43), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(43), Lock-Rchg/Hold(45), Lock-Acc/Rchg(45), Lock-Acc/Hold(45)
Level 44: Charged Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(46), ResDam-I(46)
Level 47: EM Pulse -- Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(A), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(48), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(48), Stpfy-KB%(50), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(50), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 49: Surge of Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
Level 50: Cardiac Core Boost
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Defiance -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(46), EndMod-I(48)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) -
Here's my SD/Fire tanker as he is on live. Some room for improvement but it isn't terribly expensive (aside from the Membranes; those came from base storage). The basics of the build are really cheap; it's some of the "fleshing out" IO's that push the price up a bit.
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Like Bill said Mid's is the standard tool for working out a build. It'll give you all the numbers behind your powers and the total numbers for your build as a whole.
Outside of that there's lots of ways to go with a /regen scrapper; one of the more effective ones is to build for S/L defense and recharge. Get Mid's, also get Titan Sentinel (it will allow you to export your character's current live build into Mid's) and work out a build. After you've done that I'd suggest asking in the Scrapper forum for suggestions on improvements. -
Quote:........ an aberration. I well remember it, and the threads that swelled to over 4,000 responses in 24 hours. Almost the entire player base was outraged over it, particularly coming as it did on top of the massive nerfs of issue 5 (the GDN) and being assured by Statesman (at the time Lead Developer) that there would be "No changes to powers with issue 6" then getting ED slapped on us. His explanation that ED was a change to the way enhancements worked in powers, not the powers themselves wasn't very well received as you might imagine.Originally Posted by DanZero
I don't remember the firestorm when ED was introduced because I was beaten about the head, very badly... and I was just a wee lurker back then. They came for everybody back then. Avatars were stacked up 20 feet high... there was GODDOOM! You think this is bad? This is a hiccup. ED was........
Picture the state of the game in issue 4 - then picture the reaction when all defenses and many controller powers were cut by over 50%, many by up to 75% in issue 5, then every power in the game was cut by another 50% in issue 6. That was, by far, the worst forum meltdown I've ever seen. Nothing before or since has even approached that level of animosity. Tankers were operating at about 20% of their issue 4 power level, Controllers lost 75% of their AOE control ability and everyone lost 50% of their damage.
It took 2 years and the addition of Invention sets to boost performance back to about the level it was after issue 5 but prior to issue 6. Yes, there was a major buff to defense in issue 7 (nearly a year after ED) and other minor buffs along the way but the issue 6 era wasn't a really fun time to be here, particularly for those of us who still remembered the old days. Overall I'd say we have a better game now than we had in issue 3-4 but boy did we go through growing pains getting here. Lots of the old timers left with either issue 5 or issue 6 and we saw a steady decline in the player base that didn't reverse itself until issue 14. We got a massive boost with issue 18 and Going Rogue; at a guess we're at least double the player base now that we had a couple of years ago.
Yeah, I guess the GDN and ED are still sore points for those of us who were here for them. I do think that the long decline of players had the effect of bringing those of us who remained closer together and may have been a contributing factor to the civility of the forums. Another, and probably the biggest factor is simple demographics - most of us average older than the typical MMO so most of us are mature & responsible adults. Because of this we don't see much of the childish "Jimmy's touching me!" attitude you see in the 800lb gorilla. -
Quote:The LAST mission is a piece of cake, I'll agree that the second with Trapdoor and the third with the Honoree can be tough on some characters. The Honoree is a real PITA on a 'troller; he's immune to some mez powers - like almost the entire Mind setOriginally Posted by FreakofFate
Holy crap the last mission sucks.. lol.. trying it on my Fire/Kin... that mez is annoying
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Quote:And yet a friend of mine has an Inv/Axe tanker named Guido, and has for going on 7 years now.Originally Posted by Scooby_Dont
I wanted to give several of my thugs on a MM Italian names. I am of Sicilian descent and thought it was cool. Vinny and Tony were okay but I was not allowed to use Guido. It surprised me for a moment, but of course I get it. Guido, before it became an insult, was one of the more common Italian names. In Italy it still is. I have two uncles named Guido.
While I understand the reasoning I still think it sucks. -
Quote:I've been intending to do that ever since i19 dropped; the problem is finding the time. I'll try and find time for an update sometime.Originally Posted by Roderick
Both your guides are great, CMA. I've read over them several times, but never used them because I never had an Invuln concept that worked for me. Well, I've got one now and the first thing I did was pull up your guides.
I got a lot out of them, but some of the info is dated. Inherent Stamina in particular makes things a lot different, and Alignment Merits all but eliminate any worry about overpriced or understocked IOs.
So, any chance for a revisit on one or both guides? -
Quote:Eh, tomAto, tomAHto. It comes down to the same thing; holding the attention of an enemy so that it doesn't affect the rest of the team. Controllers can do it with holds, immob, confuse etc; defenders can do it with toggle debuffs, soft controls and the like, blasters can do it by staying out of range... there's any number of ways to fix an enemy's attention on you and avoid the consequences.Originally Posted by Intrinsic
If you're holding aggro without taking damage by keeping out of range of the mob, that sounds more like kiting than tanking.
From the team's perspective the problem enemy is otherwise occupied so they're free to do their jobs without that enemy interfering. At it's most basic that's what tanking is about. -
Quote:I'd agree there; I define "tanking" in it's purest form as keeping the attention of an enemy on you instead of on someone else. By exploiting the range issue anyone can tank LR... where it gets tough is doing it without exploiting that.Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
I dunno. I think this is an unnecessarily split hair here.
Maybe some cream rinse...
Sure, this kind of tanking is vulnerable to loss of aggro but it meets the acid test of keeping attention on one person/item so that the rest of the team doesn't worry about it. I won't dispute that a tank is best at performing the task of tanking but in the final analysis whatever works is doing the job. -
Well, if you're eliminating Stone and specifying no inspirations and no team buffs/heals then you're pretty well limited to exploiting AI bugs by hover taunting.
Surviving LR while the red & blue towers are up really needs four things:
- 75% defense to S/L/E while the Blue tower's up
- At LEAST 70% resist to S/L/E while the Red tower's up, and ideally a lot closer to 90%
- A large heal for when damage gets through the defense
- Some means of dealing with the large end drain of the Channelgun if it hits.
I just don't see it happening on anything but Stone armor without leveraging team buffs, inspirations or exploiting the AI. Even on Stone I tend to need the odd inspiration or two while the red & blue towers are up. All LR needs to do is land 2-3 attacks in close succession to drop ANYONE, even if you have 90% resistance to everything. If you get 75% defense that's not LIKELY to happen, but it can... and he throws attacks at a very rapid rate. He'll have roughly an 11% chance to hit you and he has several attacks that, with the red tower buffing him, will hit for well over 1,000 HP damage after 90% resistance. One of those drops you to yellow, two drops you to red and the third will kill you. It can happen faster than you can react with bad luck too. -
I have, at last count, 17 level 50 characters... I think I've unlocked the Alpha on all but 3 of them... I did that the first two weeks after it dropped. On the other hand I've only slotted the tier 2 on about half of them and only focused on really working with 4-5 of them. As of last night I've slotted the tier 4 on one (my Ill/Rad) and the tier 3 on 4 more of them. Narrowing my focus helped greatly in reducing grind; I anticipate getting the tier 4 on my Fire/EM blaster tonight (only need 2 more shards) and probably on CMA (only needs one more WTF).
I've picked one of my 4 tanks (CMA), one of my two blasters (Delta Farce), one of my 3 controllers (Nameless Phantom) and one of my 3 scrappers (Sword of Damocleve) as my current focus. After the first WTF came in I practically burned out trying to run everything through it; since then I decided that was pointless. I'll play a few characters regularly and if I get the urge to play one of the others I'll start with them. No point racing all 17 through all at once; I didn't level them to 50 all together so why try and "level" them all together through the Incarnate?
I was looking through my list of characters and I only found two 50's without a tier 1 so if I get the urge there's nothing preventing them from running anything. Of course all this new stuff IS making my non-50's gather dust but that will change eventually. Frankly I love having something new to work towards with my 50's. -
I guess I'll buck the trend a bit; I do have Assault/Tactics on my Fire/Rad and I haven't had all that much problem with wandering monkeys while it helps considerably on the accuracy of Cinders and Cages.
My normal MO is to nail the next group with Flashfire followed by Cages, run into melee and Char anything still active then Cages again followed by Bonfire. I keep spamming Cages every 5-10 seconds to maintain the -kb so Bonfire doesn't send stuff flying. Once that group's down I move on to the next and nail them with Cinders followed by Cages. I never drop Bonfire until after the second application of Cages as insurance, and I rarely loose more than one or two mobs to the KB.
Power wise like Local I have the Psi epic for IW and Psi 'Nado. I don't have Mutation or Fallout, while I wouldn't mind having Mutation I just don't see enough benefit to Fallout to justify the power selection and the slots to make it useful.
Hmm, looking over my build I see that I definitely need to respec; I'm still operating on a pre- issue 19 build. That'll open up room for Mutation and probably Maneuvers. That's one of the problems of having large numbers of alts, some of them tend to sit idle for extended periods. -
Quote:I went Cardiac on CMA because while I didn't really have serious end issues there were still some, and it was something that would give full benefit. I considered Spiritual but that would have simply increased my end issues. Nerve I discounted since more accuracy wouldn't have an appreciable effect. Looking further into that tree though the def benefit is interesting though. Musculature wasn't even considered since all my attacks are already ED capped for damage and the secondary effects don't apply anyway.Originally Posted by Sailboat
Thanks for the input, folks. Looks like there's no solid consensus.
Well, he is soft-capped (one foe in range) to s/l/e/n damage types. His end issues are minor -- during prolonged (multi-minute) fights, his end can drop down below 50%, but he hasn't bottomed out that I can recall (and Taunt is a useful endurance-free option to throw out if one needs to let a little recovery catch up during a long fight).
As far as acc goes, he has acceptable acc slotted in his powers, and a smallish global acc bonus...but he's Inv/SS, so he's got serious stacked to-hit bonuses on top of that, and Rage is ED-capped for to-hit enhancement. Although I haven't tried the Incarnate TFs, for example, and could be in for a surprise, I don't feel a strong need for another acc boost.
I've been trying to test out what the Incarnate abilities do for me in Mid's. But the two on the left side are bugged and crash Mid's (I reported the bug and they're fixing it) and when I've tentatively tested out the other two kinds, I didn't see any changes to defense/resistance numbers at all...but I was only trying it out hurriedly while a team was assembling, so I might have missed something.
Frankly on my Incarnate characters my "default" choice has been Cardiac since by level 50 most of my holes have been filled and the biggest benefit I could get was to endurance. My perma-PA Ill/Rad 'troller with his 213% global recharge had more endurance as the big need... I could have gotten use out of Spiritual for recharge but at the level I'd already gotten I needed end more than I needed additional recharge, and all my characters are acc capped to +3 mobs, many are capped to +4.
I chose Spiritual for my Stone/Fire tanker because his biggest need was recharge; endurance wasn't a problem at all for him. My Archery/EM blaster likewise had zero end issues (and hadn't even taken Fitness pre-i19) so he also got Spiritual.
I suppose I could reslot my attacks and move things around so as to make "room" for Musculature to pick up the slack but I've looked at the Alpha as a case of filling in gaps rather than as an integral part of the build. -
Quote:An Inv built for defense has very little to fear from end drain... the Carnie death drain is all energy and it must hit to drain... therefore you'll very seldom have to deal with it. The same holds true for Malta, Sappers are also energy damage and if they can't hit you they can't drain you. The only time I've had any issues with end drain are facing Lord Recluse on the STF... he'll have around a 12% chance to hit with that end drain attack of his so it's a good idea to carry a blue or two.Originally Posted by Wyldhunt
After yours and Dech's comments, the memory of recent positive changes to Inv/ finally surfaced in my mind, so I put together a very quick Mid's build of Inv/. It would be much, much better than my old experiences with Inv/Ax versus End.
I've seen that /WP very quickly recovers from a Sapper zap, and can last through multiple Carnie deaths (with care), but Inv/ did not do either - obviously, my Inv/ experience is dated (back when one hit from a Sapper zap = quick death by the rest of Malta, before I could pop a blue and attack/retoggle).
I'll have to play an Inv/ Tanker again some day (I don't want to bring my original Inv/Ax back still), and see how it goes... but I'm having too much fun with my Elec/SM for that right now.
If you're worried about end drain then try Electric Armor; it's for all intents and purposes immune to drain with it's 95% drain resist. Stone is likewise nearly immune with the massive drain resist in Rooted.
To bring things back on topic I'll say that most WP tankers I've teamed with were fairly durable, but far and away they were the worst at holding aggro. I've only teamed with two WP tankers that I could trust to do an adequate job of aggro control and NONE who could do as good a job as most other primaries. WP has it's virtues with better endurance management and a wide spectrum of defenses and resistances but that's overshadowed by it's pathetic aggro capability.
I have a friend who I've had tanking for me on several of his tankers; he's quite competent at managing aggro and I can trust his ability. Still he's considerably worse at aggro with his WP than he is with any of his other tanks. If you're going to tank with WP you will HAVE to rely on your secondary to do all the heavy lifting of aggro - a secondary with good AOE's is highly recommended as is Taunt. -
As long as you stay ~20' or more off the ground the blue patch won't affect those on the ground... and as an added bonus the Swords have NO ranged attacks so they're a non-issue. That's something that's highly useful for a squishier character as those things hit HARD.
All my squishy toons fly in the Apex for that reason and I seldom have any issues. Yeah, if I'm stupid and don't dodge the blue I get hit... by the -fly and immediately drop out of the damage patch
. As you've discovered you need to be alert to the forming blue patch and ready to move; once the warning forms you have ~8 seconds to get out of the way, more than enough even if you've been stunned and are suppressed.
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Well about an hour after I sent in my support ticket I got an email that they'd wiped the question fields and I could log in and reset them. Apparently they've been bombarded by this in the last few days and relaxed all the verification demands. Either that or I got a particularly helpful GM but I've reset things and have access to my master account again.
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Quote:Great advice here; different servers have developed different... well, personalities for lack of a better term. For the most part this is minor "in-jokes" like Pinnacle's love of drinking (years ago Pin was always the last server to come up after maintenance, hence it was the "drunk" server) and the abundance of cookies on Guardian (started as kind of a running joke by a few people on the server that's taken a life of it's own). The smaller servers tend to have pretty close knit communities while, at least in my somewhat limited experience, Freedom tends to be a case of you'll rarely team with the same people more than once. The sheer number of players there means that there's less incentive for people to seek out the same players to team with over and over.Originally Posted by Turgenev
Heya Abbadon, and welcome to COH.
1. Leveling has come pretty fast over the years. Back in the days of the dinosaurs, there used to be "leveling gaps" where you outleveled the content gated for your level, and you'd be forced to redo content or hunt public targets to get over the edge. Since about four years ago, they've significantly improved the leveling slope to be smoother, with little risk of finishing your content before you've outleveled it - if anything, Dumple was right in that it's arguably TOO fast sometimes, where you'll end up missing story arcs on your quest of regular teaming.
However, there are plenty of stops in place to help you. Ouroboros is a "flashback" system where you can re-run previous content (in a time-travel story format). You can also disable XP earning if you're getting it too fast (because you're outleveling your wife... but you can level pact with her.. more on that later). One thing about the learning curve the Devs took over the years is that, seven years later, it led them here - a really competent system of gameplay and leveling structure that the dedicated community helped them to navigate.
2. As mentioned earlier, the game's generally not "loot" based; you're not doing the "Kill the Butcher of Azurewrath" instance 500 times on the off chance you'll get your Cloudsong Sword of a Thousand Truths. This game is more about the journey. The rare "loot" is typically in the form of recipes, which is dropped at random from certain classes of enemies. No one enemy is more likely to have the drop than another, so you're not stuck in a rut if you're jonesing for that special something you think you need.
Instances are capably done; a lot of in-game action has migrated to instances for quality control, vs the older format "open zone" combat scenarios of the original Hamidon raid, etc. The open zone scenarios now are more orchestrated and gated via time, so even if things get ridiculously laggy, it won't be that way for long. XD Instanced missions are solid and well built, with the newer content being several orders of magnitude improved over the originals (and in some cases, the older content has been rewritten to refresh and improve the experience - case in point, the Positron Task Force).
Inventions are where this system really comes into play, but it's not "required" like other MMO formats where reliance on the loot is a requisite to participation. In fact, out of all my many 50s, I only have one who's actually "slotted" with Inventions sets - everyone else just uses the common variant, which is more than good enough for my needs. It's less about you having that extra 3% of theoretical damage than it is you having 100% of the will and skill to play that toon.
The most recent breed of this is the "Incarnate" system, which I've found to be pretty well developed and paced for the "endgame" build scenario. For the first time, you're taking you're lvl 50 hero into uncharted territories of skill and ability that's being unveiled to you slowly over the coming months. The pace is terrific; it encourages teaming but doesn't require it, and the gaps it fills are noticeable but not overwhelmingly so. The method really does add a sense of evolution for my toons that have been level capped for over half a decade, so I'm pleased as punch. What's old is new and AWESOME again. A surprising thing to say for an MMO built in 2004!
Some additional points:
Make your own choices based on experience. There are certain personalities who'll steer you away from XYZ server based on their personal impression - which isn't yours. I'd recommend, as you enjoy the trial, to try out all the servers people love AND hate, and see for yourself. I'm a Freedom native, and for over half a decade we were the busiest server, but where you have more players, you have more troublemakers as well as more saints. (But no one talks about the saints. )
I dig a few other servers - Champion's a favorite of mine for personalities, and Infinity has some nice people that've come to Freedom for fights - but I'll be damned if I let haters color your viewpoint without offering commentary from the opposing side.
Ultimately, this game is about being a hero (or villain). That's one thing that everyone here loves, and it's the best reason to stay. So dive in, check out the various communities, and let us know how much you dig it after you buy your first annual subscription.
If you need anything, feel free to PM me here or look me up in game. I'll give you a tour around Freedom and intro you to some of the people who make it mighty, or point you in the right direction for some of the other servers out there.
But above all, cheers, and be excellent.
On the Invention system... yes it's true that a top end IO set build can outperform a basic SO one by a massive amount that same basic build is capable of participating and I know of very few players who truly discriminate against them. Generally we're MUCH more interested in players who are trying and know what they're doing. I'd take a good player with a basic, standard build in a heartbeat over an idiot with a multi-billion influence build.
There are characters who are competent but not extraordinary with basic SO enhancements that can become nearly equivalent to an entire team with massive IO bonuses but we don't worry much about that as a general rule. I've NEVER rejected someone from a team based on their build, only based on how they play. Almost all of us will cut new players a lot of slack as well if they're willing to learn. Unlike many games death isn't a big deal; it gives you an XP penalty that'll be gone in just a couple of spawns. Because of that we don't worry too much about it outside of a (very) few situations.
It was alluded to earlier but Healing is actually the weakest form of damage mitigation in the game, at least once you get past level 20 or so. Buffs and debuffs are FAR more powerful in this game than you're probably used to, and they stack as well. A group of buff/debuffers can slow enemies down to 20% of their attack speed, reduce incoming damage by 90%, increase team damage output by 400% (or more with debuffs on the enemies) and increase the team's speed by 200%+. Because of all this simple reactive healing is much less valuable. In fact you'll probably find out that the term "healer" tends to be a derogatory one... characters who have heals also have other powers that are more important, and they have attacks as well. If the team isn't taking damage then it's much more useful for the support character to attack/control/debuff/buff than it is to stand there waiting to heal. -
Quote:Well, my Ice tank is still too young at 35 for those but I've run both several times on my Shield/Fire tank and didn't notice any particular problems. Yes, Bobcat hits hard on Tin Mage and Battle Maiden can be a B!tch with her attacks not to mention the Blue Death but I had no particular issues with either TF. It was harder than with my Inv/Stone tank of course... Shield isn't as tough... but it wasn't by any imagination impossible. I did get nailed once on Tin Mage with my SD tanker while holding Neuron and two AV class Warwalkers; it was a case of full HP then 0.5 seconds later dead when two-three attacks got through at once.Originally Posted by DeathKitty
I have a 50+ ice/ice tanker softcapped, almost perma hasten. I've heard from a few that ice is no good on either of these TFs? Does anyone have any anecdotal evidence to support or reject these claims?
I'd guess a soft capped Ice should have somewhat similar results... maybe a bit worse due to lower resistances backing up the defense and as hard as things hit there may be no time for dull pain, er hoarfrost. -
Quote:Exactly; my default slotting on an Invuln is to throw RA into TI, Uny, RPD, Tough and Res Energies thus getting the bonuses stacked 5 times. Hmm, now that I think it over there may be some logic, if you're taking Res Elements, to moving that last set of RA into Res Elements and leaving RPD at the base slot. My current build on CMA uses 5 sets of RA as I mentioned above and I have Res Elements at 49 with the Steadfast unique (as a level 15 IO, so it's good exemped all the way to Posi levels) in the base slot.Originally Posted by Finduilas
Not really. Mouse over the S/L resistance total on your build in Mid's and you'll see that you're way over the hard cap for S/L resistance; anything over 90% is just not used. I'm sure CMA recommended the RA set for the bonuses, since RPD doesn't need to be that heavily slotted for an Invul tank with Tough to hit the hard cap. Normally using RPD as a set mule is a good strategy, but in this case the slotting in ET made those RA sets unusable.
In Beorn's build getting the 1.25% E/N bonus twice in ET does waste that bonus in two of the 5 RA sets. It's a common mistake that I've made myself when working "on paper" on something looking for more E/N def. I'd personally dump the Kin Combat set from TF and put a pair of Smashing Haymaker sets into ET & TF... it's MUCH cheaper and you'll end up with the same def numbers.
In fact you can pull BOTH sets of Kin Combat, put in ONE set of Smash Haymaker and keep soft capped S/L def. Bearing that in mind I'd be tempted to 5 slot ET & TF with Crushing Impact for 14% accuracy and 10% recharge bonuses. By doing that you'll end up with soft capped S/L/E/N defense, more accuracy, more recharge, a bit more HP AND you'll save close to a billion influence. That sounds really attractive to me anyway. You do hit rule of 5 on one of the 1.125% HP bonuses but that's only 20 HP of bonus wasted.
Anyway, that's my thinking; the build you've outlined will work quite well, you're just spending considerably more inf than needed and wasting some bonuses. Oh, I would suggest slotting an accuracy into Boxing's default slot instead of the disorient... the stun won't happen that often and when it does it'll only affect minions anyway. Better to have it hit more often than enhance a short duration effect. -
First, welcome to the game! There aren't any dumb questions; all of us were new at one time and we understand that this game is rather complex. Fortunately most of that complexity you won't have to worry about starting out; after all the game is still playable at the basic level. You can worry about the more complex options after you've mastered the basics. For that matter the ordinary enhancements you can go into the store and buy are perfectly adequate for most of the game's content; you don't really NEED to worry about the (highly complex and convoluted) Invention system if you don't want to.
Second, on servers. Freedom is the most populated and it's true that it has lots of great players there. Unfortunately any population is going to contain jerks and with the largest total population you get the largest population of jerks. I've played a few characters there and I have to agree with the opinion that you're much more likely to run into bad players and rude players there than on other servers.
Most other servers have a surprisingly low number of rude players in my experience; part of that is demographics... this game tends to attract a more mature playerbase (most of my regular buddies are 40+) and that leads to a higher number of players who act like responsible adults. The vast majority of us are more than willing to help new players; anyone who's willing to listen and learn will find endless teammates willing to help them with anything they don't understand.
Population on servers is shown by the order of the server on the selection list. It goes like this:
Server you last logged into.
Least populated server
*
*
Most populated server
Freedom & Virtue are the two most populated; Freedom has most of the PvP players while Virtue has most of the roleplayers. I suppose I should mention that PvP is highly limited and only occurs either in Arena matches or in four specific PvP zones. Outside of the Arena and those zones it does not exist. Virtue is occasionally a bit strange... for the most part it's like all the other servers outside of the occasional player or group who're into RP and play and chat "in character". Usually it's no big deal but sometimes it gets weird.
My main server is Guardian, one of a group of 4-5 servers that sit in the middle ground of population and alternate the #3 slot in population. Guardian has a solid group of players and very few jerks. I think I've only run into 4-5 really rude players there in the last 5 years.
On most servers the Global chat channels are where recruiting for the tougher content takes place, once you sign up for the full game I'd recommend going to your specific server's forum and asking about the popular channels and joining them.
Once you make your choice of server the next thing you'll need to decide is what kind of character to make. For a new player just starting out I always suggest a Scrapper; they offer good damage with enough durability to be forgiving of beginner mistakes. Once you've the basic game mechanics down you may well prefer something else; that's perfectly all right too. You get 12 slots per server to create characters after all and you can buy up to 24 more per server if you want. Most of us have many characters of many different AT's; we call it "Alt-itis" and almost all of us suffer from it to some extent. -
Add me to the list of those unable to access their master account since this "security" update. Even though I know what I put in the question fields in 2005 it still tells me I'm wrong. I have to wonder if the new update may have overwritten the question fields.
I'm starting to get very disgusted with this new feature. As with nearly everyone else I'm completely screwed if they demand the "original email info"... honestly who keeps emails from 6 years ago? My email folder is over 100GB in size anyway with all the business stuff I need to keep for two years; anything older is automatically purged.
This is a really bad decision on NCSoft's part and if it isn't addressed swiftly and competently will cost them large numbers of subscribers. I love the game but I'm getting disgusted with the NCSoft orders from on high. If I were on the fence about continuing with the game this would absolutely make the decision for me. -
Quote:You can get close to 300% regen along with soft capping S/L/E/N defense and have something amazing... my current build on CMA has 45% def to S/L/E/N, 35% F/C along with around 290% regen without any real build compromises. If I grabbed Phys. Perfection that would push me over 300%.Originally Posted by Ironblade
+regen.
My invuln has over 300% regen. That's approaching a regen scrappers 'always on' level of regen. Put that on a tanks hit points and it does a lot for survivability. The big selling point on this is that it's CHEAP. Regen is the first set bonus in the sets that have it. Also, since you're slotting IO's in pairs, you can semi-frankenslot and have reallly good performance on the powers.
There's very little in the game that can threaten that tank. Regen alone won't give you a lot of extra survivability; soft capping defense will make far more difference in your durability. Once you've soft capped defense then by all means go for regen, one of the big strengths of Invuln is it's layered protections. -
Quote:I have to second this suggestion, /Energy Melee is less than stellar now and Dark Armor, while it can be tough and effective, is rather challenging to play and build well. Invuln is a great first tank; gets and holds aggro very well, highly effective even early and it matures as probably the best all around tanker set. I may be a bit biased since my first tanker and my first 50 was Invuln but even after taking Stone Armor & Shield to 50 and Ice and Fire to the mid 30's it's still my favorite set.Originally Posted by mauk2
Hello, and welcome to CoH! It's a great game, ain't it?
Now, I am not going to cast aspersions on anybody's play, but wow, dark/em is a challenging combo. If this is your first toon, I salute you for your ambition!
If, on the other hand, you'd like to tackle something a bit less...difficult...I'd point you at a Invuln/Dark Melee. You still got the whole 'darkness; vibe going on, with a bit of costume tinkering you can get Invuln to look nice and dingy, and Invuln/Dark Melee is...VERY tough.
I mean, VERY.
If you're determined to stick with dark/energy I'm sure there'll be plenty of advice to help you out. Sadly, I'm not terribly familiar with either set.
Good luck, and no matter what, have fun!
Secondary wise I'd say "anything but energy melee" actually. If you want AOE damage then Fire Melee is good as is Electric Melee. For Single Target damage there's the classic Inv/Super Strength combo which is very effective... it waits until level 38 for any AOE but it gets a good one then and it's single target damage is solid. My Inv is Stone Melee; it offers hard hitting single target damage with solid AOE mitigation with it's knockdown and stun. Dark Melee will be almost totally single target focused but it offers a ton of mitigation with one of it's early attacks having a side effect of healing you.
Unfortunately Energy Melee has always been almost totally single target focused and some time ago it received a nerf in the form of drastically lengthening it's attack animations making it fall considerably behind the other sets in terms of playability. It offers a lot of damage in it's level 35 & 38 attacks but they're so slow animating that frequently your teammates will kill your target before the power goes off.